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Friday, March 16, 2012

pembroke

Clara Parkes recently revisited Imperial Stock Ranch yarns in Knitter's Review (an update to a previous glowing review from 2003), and it reminded me that I have an Imperial Stock Ranch project to share!

There's something amazing about using American yarn where you feel good not only about the yarn, but also about the producers, the history, the sheep, and the business model. In the words of Clara Parkes:

With so many wool yarns on the market, why should you bother going
out of your way to find this one? For starters, it's a great knit that
produces a spongy and succulent, home-grown fabric. But perhaps more
important, when you've cast off that final stitch you'll be wearing a
tale of Western expansion and the American dream.

You're wearing the story of how one man, equipped with just a saddle
horse, pack horse, and six-gun, became the biggest landowner in the
state of Oregon, running tens of thousands of sheep on the very same
land as the sheep that produced your yarn today. And your garment will
be physical proof that, while increasingly challenging, it's still
possible to produce good domestic wool on a large scale while following
ethical and sustainable business practices.

I stumbled across Imperial Stock Ranch's bulky 2-strand pencil roving at Loopy Yarns last fall, and I was intrigued. Soft, unspun roving in a gorgeous palette of colors. The yarn itself drew me in -- the pattern was really secondary here (unusual for me).

Pembroke was really fun to knit, and I love how soft and airy the yarn is. That said, it's a bit fragile since it's unspun, and the more natural feel of the wool comes with a few bits of vegetable matter sprinkled in. Loopy Yarns' owner warned me to be careful while knitting it, as it tends to break. You can easily felt it back together, but that's no one's favorite part of knitting.

My yarn only broke two or three times -- overall I had a great experience with it, no doubt because I am naturally a loose knitter. I suspect that a tight knitter might not enjoy the yarn as much. I was very careful when washing the finished shawl, as I feared felting; pinning it out to block it was no problem.

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And now it's time to finish packing for my knitting group's annual getaway weekend. Michigan, here I come! We're slated to have glorious weather (80 degrees in the Upper Midwest in March? madness!).

Just beautiful. :) I'm making one in the Imperial Yarn Pembroke knit-along this month-- a slightly smaller one because it's for my 9-year-old. I love the color of yours!-- I'll have to try the roving some time. I discovered Imperial Yarn last year and I really like how you know where the yarn comes from and who makes it.